Google Employee Union Petitions Search Engine To Suppress Results for Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers
Employees at Google's parent company are urging the search engine to suppress results for pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, according to a petition sent Monday by the company union to Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai.
In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, more than 650 employees at Alphabet Inc. signed the petition, which demands that Google remove "results for fake abortion providers" and what the union considers "misleading information" about reproductive health care services. The petition also demands that Google stop collecting users' data on abortion-related searches, saying that users' data would be "used against them" in states that have banned or restricted abortion.
Abortion providers often vilify pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, which provide counseling, resources, and often medical services to pregnant women. Planned Parenthood calls such centers "fake clinics" that have the "shady, harmful agenda" of talking women out of getting abortions.
The petition, circulated by the Alphabet Workers Union, urges Google to institute data privacy controls for "health-related activity," such as searches for "reproductive justice, gender-affirming care, and abortion access information." These data, according to the petition, "must never be saved, handed over to law enforcement, or treated as a crime."
Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Google have faced political challenges on data disclosure since a draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health was leaked in May. Twenty-one congressional Democrats in June urged Google in a letter to "limit the appearance" or add "user-friendly disclaimers" to search results for pro-life pregnancy centers.
Google states in its Privacy Policy that it must respond to a government subpoena, court order, or search warrant but pushes back on requests for information it deems too broad.
A Nebraska police department this month used legally acquired information from Facebook to prosecute 17-year-old Celeste Burgess for violating Nebraska's ban on abortions after 20 weeks, the Nebraska Examiner reported.
Google stated in July it will automatically erase visits to abortion facilities from a user's location history, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Planned Parenthood Spends Record Sum in Effort To Make Midterms About Abortion
Voters are more worried about Bidenflation than about abortion rights, polls show
Abortion advocacy group Planned Parenthood will pour a record-breaking $50 million into November's midterm election in an attempt to galvanize voters after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The group's massive spending will go to Senate, House, and gubernatorial races in nine swing states, with the AP reporting that Planned Parenthood wants to "drive turnout by Democratic and independent voters" who support abortion rights.
Democratic strategists have said, however, that abortion is unlikely to drive people to the polls, the Washington Free Beacon has reported, with pollster Josh Ulibarri asking, "Is that more powerful than when a voter looks at their receipt when they check out at Target?"
A majority of mostly pro-choice suburban Phoenix women told Reuters in June that they are more worried about sky-high inflation under President Joe Biden than about abortion rights. And multiple polls have shown that Americans still rank inflation as the most important issue facing the country.
Planned Parenthood officials nevertheless say that abortion will energize voters this cycle, with super PAC executive director Jenny Lawson insisting that "abortion access is absolutely one of the defining issues this November."
‘Protecting Life at All Stages’: Georgia Adopts Policies To Support Pregnant Women and Foster Kids
Georgia governor Brian Kemp (R.) and the state's Department of Revenue unveiled policies this week aimed at supporting pregnant women and children in the foster care system. The move comes amid accusations from Democrats in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade that Republicans d0 not prioritize the well-being of mothers or children after they are born.
Georgia’s Department of Revenue updated its guidance Monday to allow women to claim their unborn children as dependents on their tax returns. Per Georgia state law, this entitles pregnant women to a $3,000 tax exemption for each additional dependent. Georgia defines an unborn child as a fetus that is at least six weeks old and has a heartbeat.
The next day, Kemp announced that the state would pay for a marketing campaign "to help recruit and retain more foster parents" in Georgia.
"Our state believes in protecting life at all stages," Kemp said in a statement. "And we're committed to achieving this goal. We hope this new campaign reaches more who are ready to answer this call."
Georgia’s new slate of pro-family policies comes following criticism from progressives alleging that Republicans who support regulation of abortion do not care to support pregnant mothers or children in the foster care system.
"Not only do [Republicans] want to force women to have children if they are pregnant," Sen. Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) said, "but when they do have them, they don’t want to provide any support for them."
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) similarly argued that "Republicans don’t care about helping children after they’re born with child tax credits, affordable education, or removing guns that kill kids in schools. They're more focused on controlling women’s health care choices through government mandated pregnancies."
Nationally, the GOP has advocated measures that would extend benefits to pregnant mothers. Congressional Republicans introduced a bill in July, for instance, that would require men to pay child support starting at conception.
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